Temporal Variability in Production is Not Consistently Affected by Global Change Drivers Across Herbaceous-Dominated Ecosystems

Authors

Meghan L. Avolio, Johns Hopkins University
Kevin R. Wilcox, University of Wyoming
Kimberly J. Komatsu, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Nathan P. LeMoine, Marquette UniversityFollow
William D. Bowman, University of ColoradoFollow
Scott L. Collins, University of New MexicoFollow
Alan K. Knapp, Colorado State University
Sally E. Koerner, University of North Carolina
Melinda D. Smith, Colorado State University - Fort Collins
Sara G. Baer, Southern Illinois University - Carbondale
Katherine Gross, Michigan State UniversityFollow
Forest Isbell, University of Minnesota
Jennie R. McLaren, University of Texas at El Paso
Peter B. Reich, University of MinnesotaFollow
Katherine Suding, University of Colorado
K. Blake Suttle, University of California
David Tilman, University of Minnesota
Zhuwen Xu, Inner Mongolia University
Qiang Yu, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Publication Date

11-2020

Publisher

Springer

Source Publication

Oecologia

Source ISSN

0029-8549

Abstract

Understanding how global change drivers (GCDs) affect aboveground net primary production (ANPP) through time is essential to predicting the reliability and maintenance of ecosystem function and services in the future. While GCDs, such as drought, warming and elevated nutrients, are known to affect mean ANPP, less is known about how they affect inter-annual variability in ANPP. We examined 27 global change experiments located in 11 different herbaceous ecosystems that varied in both abiotic and biotic conditions, to investigate changes in the mean and temporal variability of ANPP (measured as the coefficient of variation) in response to different GCD manipulations, including resource additions, warming, and irrigation. From this comprehensive data synthesis, we found that GCD treatments increased mean ANPP. However, GCD manipulations both increased and decreased temporal variability of ANPP (24% of comparisons), with no net effect overall. These inconsistent effects on temporal variation in ANPP can, in part, be attributed to site characteristics, such as mean annual precipitation and temperature as well as plant community evenness. For example, decreases in temporal variability in ANPP with the GCD treatments occurred in wetter and warmer sites with lower plant community evenness. Further, the addition of several nutrients simultaneously increased the sensitivity of ANPP to interannual variation in precipitation. Based on this analysis, we expect that GCDs will likely affect the magnitude more than the reliability over time of ecosystem production in the future.

Comments

Accepted version. Oecologia, Vol. 194 (November 1, 2020): 735-744. DOI. © 2020 Springer. Used with permission.

Recommended Citation

Avolio, Meghan L.; Wilcox, Kevin R.; Komatsu, Kimberly J.; LeMoine, Nathan P.; Bowman, William D.; Collins, Scott L.; Knapp, Alan K.; Koerner, Sally E.; Smith, Melinda D.; Baer, Sara G.; Gross, Katherine; Isbell, Forest; McLaren, Jennie R.; Reich, Peter B.; Suding, Katherine; Suttle, K. Blake; Tilman, David; Xu, Zhuwen; and Yu, Qiang, "Temporal Variability in Production is Not Consistently Affected by Global Change Drivers Across Herbaceous-Dominated Ecosystems" (2020). Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications. 819.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/bio_fac/819